The PTR where the countdown goes UP. April 15 PTR! COMPLETE!

[iheartbelle87]

Hi and welcome to my pre trip report, where I encourage you to not remain seated or even keep your arms and leg inside at all times! In fact, stick those appendages out and join in!

Update: I started this PTR in August 2014 when DH and I got the all clear from my mother in law that she would watch our dog for four nights in January 2015. Unfortunately, life happened and the trip got cancelled. Then was on again with a countdown of 21 days. Then the trip got pushed back to 41 days. "Life happened" is code for: DH starting grad school to obtain his MBA,got a promotion where he is now a boss (!), I decided to go to grad school for nurse practitioner and oh yeah... someone broke into our house and we were burglarized.

DH: 29 year old biotech scientist by day, grad student and secret Disney liker by night! Growing up, DH's family went to WDW once for the obligatory American right of passage trip. And that was it! Until... we got married! DH's second trip was at 25 years old in June 2011 for our honeymoon, at which time he fell in love!! This will be his fourth trip technically, as we stayed one night at AKL in May 2012 after a cruise.

His favorites: Jasmine (and I quote "who is the girl from Aladdin, I like her, she's cute") favorite park is Animal Kingdom, his favorite TS is Liberty Tree Tavern and AKL takes the cake for resorts!

Me: 27 year old nurse by day who will obtaining by BSN 4/19/15 and starting NP School this summer, Disney lover/obessessor by night! Growing up my family went to WDW 1-2 times a year, so I think it's completely normal to always have a trip planned- who agrees?!

My favorite characters are Belle and Marie from Aristocats, EPCOT is my fav park with AK a VERY close second, Tusker House is probably my fav TS that is until it became character dining..and so far my fav resort is AKL as well, although I'd love to try GF and am certain I'd fall in love and never want to stay anywhere else.

This is DH and I in June 2011 during our honeymoon:

Up next... THE WHY, WHEN and WHERE!

Chapters:
Introductions!
The Who, What, When, Where
Derailment!
Reservation Overload in 30min.
Pre Trip/Perfect World/Type A Personality Plans
DH tries to throw a wrench in my perfect plans
DH's Wrench Is Actually A Good Plan
Important Pre Trip Dates.Plan Additions
29 Days!
3 Weeks!
We won't be eating at Madagascar
OMG We're Leaving THIS week!
Magic Kingdom Plans
Animal Kingdom Plans
FINAL UPDATE!

 

[iheartbelle87]

*UPDATE 3/2/2015*

Drum roll please... 1 month, 7 days left! That's right folks, this is the who, what, where, when and why. Or something like that.

Now that we've been introduced, let's get to the nitty gritty. You already know who we are but I'm going to throw a real kicker here and say the what is... a trip to Disney!

When: Our new (and permanent) dates are April 10-13th. Initially our dates were 1/22-1/26/15 as DH would be between grad school classes. However Christmas and being broken into completely wrecked our basement. We also replaced a roof and a new furnace? Oil tank thing? IDK... anyway it costed $3k alone, so good bye vacation.

Where: And by where, I mean which resort! CSR- standard room. I'll put in a request for King Bed and prefer Casitas 5 but will be happy anywhere!

Side note: DH knows that staying at GF is on my bucket list, but I think unless there is an exceptional deal, I'll hold off on pushing for this until we have babies in strollers... so stay tuned circa 2018!

Why: Because it's Disney and winters in Massachusetts are TERRIBLE. #snowmageden #alaskachussetts #nomoresnow #ohlookwegotthreeinches last night

Ok next up is.... pre travel day/travel day plans!

 

[vleeth]

We went in Jan 2007. It was a really great trip!

 

[Belle_princess]

I'm onboard for your PTR!! My friend and I will be at Disney when you are. Maybe we can meet!

I can't wait to hear more about your trip plans!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Hi and welcome to my pre trip report, where I encourage you to not remain seated or even keep your arms and leg inside at all times! In fact, stick those appendages out and join in!

Update: I started this PTR in August 2014 when DH and I got the all clear from my mother in law that she would watch our dog for four nights in January 2015. Unfortunately, life happened and the trip got cancelled. Then was on again with a countdown of 21 days. Then the trip got pushed back to 41 days. "Life happened" is code for: DH starting grad school to obtain his MBA,got a promotion where he is now a boss (!), I decided to go to grad school for nurse practitioner and oh yeah... someone broke into our house and we were burglarized.

DH: 29 year old biotech scientist by day, grad student and secret Disney liker by night! Growing up, DH's family went to WDW once for the obligatory American right of passage trip. And that was it! Until... we got married! DH's second trip was at 25 years old in June 2011 for our honeymoon, at which time he fell in love!! This will be his fourth trip technically, as we stayed one night at AKL in May 2012 after a cruise.

His favorites: Jasmine (and I quote "who is the girl from Aladdin, I like her, she's cute") favorite park is Animal Kingdom, his favorite TS is Liberty Tree Tavern and AKL takes the cake for resorts!

Me: 27 year old nurse by day who will obtaining by BSN 4/19/15 and starting NP School this summer, Disney lover/obessessor by night! Growing up my family went to WDW 1-2 times a year, so I think it's completely normal to always have a trip planned- who agrees?!

My favorite characters are Belle and Marie from Aristocats, EPCOT is my fav park with AK a VERY close second, Tusker House is probably my fav TS that is until it became character dining..and so far my fav resort is AKL as well, although I'd love to try GF and am certain I'd fall in love and never want to stay anywhere else.

This is DH and I in June 2011 during our honeymoon:

Up next... THE WHY, WHEN and WHERE!

Introductions!
What, When, Where, Why

 

[iheartbelle87]

Derailment

Welcome back, so glad to have you here! Even tho we are moving right along, I just noticed that I didn't full explain HOW this trip came about (after it cancelled of course). So a quick derailment from trip planning to update everyone how painful getting this trip booked was.

Wednesday Feb 18, 2015. 3:16pm. I'm at work, counting down the minutes until 4:30pm, discussing peoples bowel movements and trying to identify what "the tiny purple pill" is. I get an e-mail from DH asking me what days I have off in March. Thinking nothing of it, I reply back with nothing more than 'the 23/24'. I didn't even ask why- I think it's the winter blues. He responded back with the most romantic reply ever:

"can you also get march 20th and maybe march 19th off? Let's do a long weekend in Disney World"

I literally jumped out of my seat and told anyone that walked by my desk how excited I was! This is the stuff romance is made of! I immediately started planning, get flight prices. I even made en excel sheet going over price comparisons. We reviewed our plans at dinner that night and we decided that ultimately leaving on 3/21 and returning 3/24 would be the best bet money wise and I wouldn't need to ask for more time off (which would be nearly impossible). Also, this put us flying back six hours before DH's Tues night grad school class.

DH quickly reminded me that we had two more hurdles to get through before we got the official "okay" to book. First, he needed to meet with his new boss and find out when his new employee would be starting as he didn't want to be away her first week on the job. He would find this out on 2/24/15. So I kept track of flight prices, etc and made tentative plans for the next week. We got the okay by his boss that those dates worked so next up was asking my MIL if she would be able to watch our precious little 15lb dog. He's a diva and cannot be boarded.

On 2/25/15 DH made the call to MIL- who, how should we say this... can be emotionally labile depending on the day, time, position of the moon and who wins survivor. I could hear DH tip toeing around her before he finally dropped the ball that we wanted her to watch our dog. I could hear that the conversation wasn't going well and was so upset with myself for getting excited. DH hung up the phone and explained that his mom cannot watch our dog during the chosen dates but could do 4/10-4/13. I should have been ecstatic. But I was depressed that my countdown was going UP. It was a COUNTUP now! Especially after having to cancel our trip in January, I can't take that much let down.

Phew. With all of this drama behind us I now had to ask to take back 3/23 and 3/24 as vacation days and use 4/10 and 4/13. Luckily my boss got back to me within 20 minutes last Friday (2/27/15). FINALLY I COULD BREATH! WE ARE REALLY GOING TO DISNEY!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Reservation Overload in 30 min or less

This will be much shorter post than the last, so I hope you are all hanging on tightly! And hey, comment away to let me know you didn't fall off somewhere

Once I got home from work on Friday 2/27/15 I immediately put a pizza in the oven and turned on the computer to get this trip booked. I'm not one that is shy about how much we are spending on this vacation so you'll see the cost breakdown here.

Flights- First we looked at our flight options as we were hoping to fly out late Thurs (4/9) night, but the last flight out of MHT is 6:10pm, so we went with an early morning flight Friday 4/10 that leaves at 7:05am, non stop to MCO, arrives at 10:15. We chose the 11am-1:50pm flight for our return flight so that we would have time to pick up the dog from my MIL's and get home before 7pm Monday night. We compared flight prices on southwest from different computers to see if it was true that they keep cookies on flight you looked at before to keep the prices high- the prices were the same on my laptop and DH's work laptop. Total Flight Cost: $702. We had $552 in credit from our cancelled January flights, so technically we only spend $150 OOP this time around.

WDW Reservation Once our flight was all set we booked our room/ticket/dining package on the WDW website- very painless and before we knew it I had 6,000 confirmation emails from southwest and WDW! 3 night, 4 day stay at CSR with two day base tickets and the 'regular' DP. Total: $1550+/- a few dollars. At this point DH's attention span had moved on the latest episode of Modern Family and I was left to plan our FP+ and dining reservations.

Dining Reservations- First I tackled the dining reservations as I was worried we wouldn't get any 'good' ressies. I was able to get what I wanted- 7pm Boma on 4/11 and 7:45pm Via Napoli on 4/12. Stay tuned for our 4/10 plans.


FP Reservations- I haven't been to WDW since 2012 so the FP+ and MDE is new to me. I have the app on my phone (obviously) and got to work. At first I didn't realize the option 1, option 2, option 3 so I thought I just had to stick with whatever times were given. Ultimately we ended up with FP+ for the Lion King, Kilimanjaro Safari and Kali River Rapids in the afternoon on 4/11 and Sapceship Earth, Seas with Nemo and Friends and Test Track FP+ for 4/12 evening.

Up next... Pre trip/prefect world/Type A Personality Plans!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Pre trip/prefect world/Type A personality plans

Welcome back! Can I just say how much I'm so over this winter? I know everyone feels the same way. At least anyone that lives in New England... luckily looking forward to this trip makes it a teensy bit easier.Any whoo, where is a breakdown of my plans for each day we are at THE WORLD ! (import dates/thing to do before the trip will be in another post). Disclaimer: These plans are based on the idea that the stars will align and nothing will go wrong. HAHA!

4/10/15
Arrive at MHT around 5:30-6am for our 7:05 flight, grab coffee/breakfast
Arrive at MCO at 10:15am, board Magic Express, arrive at CSR by 12 at the latest?
Lunch at Pepper Market
Nap/Pool time/ homework by the pool/until we are hungry for dinner, no dining reservations for this night as I don't want to commit to anything besides relaxing!

4/11/15
Finally a park day! Our plan for today is to have a snack credit from Pepper Market at CSR for breakfast
I've recently started running (for fun!) and would like to get in a few miles along the jogging trail here before we hit up the quiet pool for more relaxation/book reading/homework. Probably Pepper Market for lunch, which we love! After lunch our plan is to shower and head over to Animal Kingdom, do a few attractions before our FP+ that starts at 2:25 for the Lion King, 4:40-5:40 Kilimanjaro Safari, and then 6pm Kali River Rapids. Then it's over to AKL for 7pm Boma dinner reservations.

4/12/15
Similar morning, breakfast, noon time, lunch plans today. Then it's heading over to Epcot for the later afternoon, dinner at Via Napoli and Illuminations at 9.

4/13/15
Leaving day

Breakfast at Pepper Market one last time before ME picks us up around 8 for our 11am flight.

What do you all think??

 

[iheartbelle87]

DH tries to throw a wrench in my perfect plans

After spending all of Saturday and Sunday trying to perfect my plans and make sure we had as much relaxation time as park time as we wanted, I was certain I had gotten it "right". It was time to tell DH my plans- he loves just being to show up and have a good time, not ever lifting a finger. I relayed the plans I so nicely outlined in my previous posts and was particularly excited about trying Via Napoli as we love LOVE LOVE pizza. At that point DH and I had decided that since Epcot is my fav and Animal Kingdom is his fav those were the two parks we were going to visit. No need for a park hopper as we want to relax. Then DH says this line-

"I want to eat some good comfort food... like that place we ate at before that had the Thanksgiving type meal"

He is referring to Liberty Tree Tavern. All this time I thought he was following along...So I told him no, are not eating at LTT because we are not going to MK. He acted shocked but was completely fine with this.

Phew, emergent re planning averted.

Up next... DH's wrench is actually a brilliant plan

 

[iheartbelle87]

DH's Wrench Is Actually A Brilliant Plan

Yes, you read that right. It's that dreaded moment when the wife has to admit defeat to her husband. Ok obviously I'm totally kidding! I was on the DIS this past weekend and read somewhere that someone had planned on attending EMG at MK but then when they re checked their app there actually were no EMH... does that make sense??

Anyway
I decided to just *check* EMH hours for MK during our stay. And guess what I found?! MK was had EMH 1am-3pm on 4/11/14 (or 4/12/15, however you want to look at it). This was a no brainer for me... time to change our plans! I sent DH a G-chat message as I was at work and he loved the idea. I spent that evening changing our plans around... they now look like this:

4/10/15- unchanged
Arrive at MHT around 5:30-6am for our 7:05 flight, grab coffee/breakfast
Arrive at MCO at 10:15am, board Magic Express, arrive at CSR by 12 at the latest?
Lunch at Pepper Market
Nap/Pool time/ homework by the pool/until we are hungry for dinner, no dining reservations for this night as I don't want to commit to anything besides relaxing!

4/11/15
Finally a park day! Still plan on using a snack credit from Pepper Market at CSR for breakfast, utilize the jogging/walking trail at CSR before settling at quiet pool for the afternoon working on homework/reading/napping. Still plan on Pepper Market for lunch, which we love! Our plan is to now continue to relax until about 5 when we need to get showered and ready to leave the resort no later than 6pm as I was able to snag a 7pm reservation at LTT! I also cancelled our FP+ for AK I had previously booked as we now plan on touring MK until 3am! FP+ include: 8-9pm BTMRR, POTC 9:15-10:15pm, 10:50pm-11:50pm Haunted Mansion. We'll also try to catch the electrical parade and maybe wishes.

4/12/15
This is no our AK day.Similar morning plans- breakfast, pool time. Our FP+ reservations at AK are 2:30-2:50 FOTLK, Kilimanjaro Safarie 4:25-5:25pm and then Kali River Rapids 6pm-7pm. We may end up leaving the hotel and grabbing lunch at Pizzafari or doing (surprise) Pepper Market again. We plan on leaving AK when they close at 7pm and have 7:45pm Boma reservation, so we will be taking the bus to AKL. After dinner I want to roam around the resort and then take a bus to DTD.

4/13/15
Not has much changed here- still leaving this day. I feel like I will extra sad this day/weird for me as it is VERY likely that I will not be back until I have a baby or am pregnant. I will be starting grad school to obtain my MSN and sit for my Nurse Practitioner boards (family nurse practitioner), which is either a 16 month or 18 month program depending on which program I chose- I am still waiting to hear back from one school. Of course, after NP school comes finding a new job so I am not sure what my schedule will be like. Sigh.

Up next...Important Pre Trip Dates/Things To Do to Help Pass Time

 

[iheartbelle87]

Pre Trip Dates- AKA: Things to do to help pass the time before the big day!

March 14th/15th- FIL is coming to spend the weekend with us for "project: make our living room not look so ugly/get rid of blue paint/mount TV above fireplace"
April 3rd- submit final project for my Ethics class!
April 4th/5th- we're hosting Easter dinner so our family will be visiting all week
April 8th- Pedicure. Make sure everything is packed.
April 9th- Work all day then meet MIL two hours away in New Hampshire for the dog drop off. Proceed to our friends house where we will be staying the night as they live close to MHT and driving back to Massachusetts would just be wasted time. Plus it'll be late (10pm?) by the time we land there. These particular friends are currently in Puerto Rico and then are going to Seattle for a few weeks so it'll be nice to catch up on their recent travel adventures.

 

[iheartbelle87]

Plan addition
I've spent the better part of the last week thinking about how we are going to balance relaxation and park time. After realizing that we'll likely be at the pool/in the room napping from noon on on arrival day, I think a nice dinner would be appropriate to arrange. Plus, I want sushi! So I booked us a 7:55pm Kona dinner- After drooling over all of the food pics I am even more convinced this is the way to go! Plus, there is steak and chicken for DH.

 

[beckyx3]

Sorry to hear about the burglary, we had that happen about 2 years ago. It's such an awful feeling. But a Disney trip is a great way to make up for it!

 

[iheartbelle87]

Thanks Beckyx3... I agree a disney trip is the best way to Make up for real life! And I'm sorry you had that happen to you as well

 

[iheartbelle87]

29 Days!

Yes, we are out of the 30's! AHH this trip is getting so close!
A few updates since last time, in no particular order:

1. I got into my first choice Family Nurse Practitioner program! After 18 e-mails back and forth with the admission office since January 29th, the MAT test proctor mis spelling my first name (yes, there is actually an A in "Ashlee", not to be confused with the common name, Shlee. . I kept being told 7-10 business days. For two months.

2. We got Mickey Mail! Last Friday we received our brochure with the luggage tags and vouchers for mini golf, arcade credits and the $15 off Planet Hollywood coupon. I was little confused because the booklet said that our ME vouchers were also inside and I couldn't find them anywhere.

3. We got Mickey Mail, part II. Before I even had to look further into the lack of ME vouchers, they arrived separately in the mail on Monday. Crisis diverted.

4. I only need to buy three things for this trip: two pairs of shorts for myself, and a carry on compliant container of contact lens solution. I attempted to get all of these items this past weekend, so that I can start packing. However silly me tried to go the mall before 11am on a Sunday- I got there at 10:30 and they obviously weren't open and I was not up for waiting 30 min. I went to Target and I didn't love any of their shorts and they were kinda of pricey? At least I was able to get the contact solution.

5. EASTER update. I am so excited that w are hosting Easter at our house this year, this is the first holiday we will be hosting since buying our house in 2013. My parents and nephews (13 & 11), BIL and SIL are all definitely coming. Our college friends (the ones in Puerto Rico on vaca now) are maybe coming. MIL isn't sure if she feels like it. She will "let us know". I love to cook, and this is the weekend before we leave for our trip so it will definitely help pass the time. My parents and nephews will be spending the weekend with us. Also, my mother is dairy/nut/tomato/shrimp free and SIL is gluten free. Wish me luck cooking for these allergens!!

 

[irene_dsc]

Following along - another Spring PTR, even if it isn't really Spring Break!

 

[iheartbelle87]

So happy to have you along, Irene_dsc!

 

[iheartbelle87]

3 weeks form tomorrow we will be at our happy place! Although recently I've take to only counting work days ( 9 1/2, if you are wondering!) Speaking of countdowns, I obviously have a countdown app on my phone and sent a screen shot to DH earlier this week in my excitement. Since then, he asked for a DAILY screenshot of our countdown! Isn't it amazing when your travel partners are finally getting excited??

There have been no real changes in our plans once we get to the world, however we did found out that our friend that is supposed to drive us to the airport has jury duty starting 4/6, so we may have to drive ourselves and park at the airport. This isn't a big deal, we'll still say at this friend's house the night before our flight, since MHT is only 15 min from their house.

I was able to find shorts for $12.99 each at Marshall's, so now I have something to wear in the parks! (you're welcome)

We also got our magic bands in the mail on Monday! Yipee!! Now that we officially have everything we need, it's time to start packing, which is my plan for this weekend. That, and spring cleaning. Can you guess which I'm more excited about?!

 

[cajunfan]

Whoo hoo! You're going to Disneyworld! SOON!!!

Nothing like stating the obvious above!

You see, I could not plan that much relaxation into my trip. I always plan more than we can do, but I am also okay with "letting some of the plans go".

I can't wait to get Magic Bands!

Lynn

 

[iheartbelle87]

Happy Monday folks! 10 days and 21 hours until we land! Woot woot! #butwhoiscounting

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Boston outdid itself and broke a record for snowfall this winter. This is my excited face:

I'm so ready to get away from it all, even though we will surely miss our dog!To make me even more Disney hungry, I drove my cousin and her friend to the Boston airport this morning... because they are going to WDW until Sunday. While I am obviously SO excited for them, I also wanted to crawl in their suitcases and leave my car to fend for itself! haha!

Funny story... I work as a nurse and recently I was making small talk with a patient and his wife, in which I mentioned DH and I had a trip to FLA planned. Of course, they asked where, blah blah and I just said "Disney World" hoping to not have to get into too much detail. Well, that didn't happen. They proceeded to tell me all about how to plan my trip and were appalled they were "spending extra money" at the moderate resorts and encouraged me to re book for ASM lol. They also didn't think I should to the DDP. And advised that I really wanted to eat good to food to make a reservation at "Madagascar" in Animal Kingdom. Seriously?! lol

Obviously I just remained professional and nodded my head, thanking them for their suggestions, and tried to move on with my assessment

But let's just say I wasn't in a professional setting... Who says these things?! So what if I wanted to stay at moderate on the DDP? It's MY vacation! I don't care what other people do on their vacations... whenever I listen to anyone else's vacation plans I am always so excited for them and guess what.. ITS NOT MY Vacation!

Example: I dropped my cousin off at the airport this morning. She is staying at Pop Century and going to Universal one day. She is so excited and I cant wait to hear about her adventures and see pics when I pick her up on Sunday! Is that my idea of a vacation? No! I can't stay at a value and don't want to leave Disney magic... but I'm not putting my two cents in!!

Ok rant over... thank you for listening!

I didn't get the packing done that I wanted to this past weekend, out of complete laziness. I did however get the carry ons out of the closet and threw our sandals, short and magic bands on top of the bags. So there's that.

Hope you enjoyed this ranting update. I promise the next one wont be a negative!